In recent years, portable information apparatuses or information appliances which have a communication function and can be connected to a network such as the Internet are widely popularized. In many information terminals typified by the apparatuses and the appliances, a plurality of application programs commencing with a browser are incorporated, so that a huge variety of complex functions are provided to users.
Information may be desired to be exchanged between a plurality of application programs executed by an information terminal. For example, by using a character string in a document browsed by a browser, a mail may be transmitted, or a phone call may be made. In order to solve this problem in a conventional technique, a hyperlink is popularly set to a telephone number or an e-mail address in web contents. This hyperlink may be defined in advance in a HyperText Markup Language (HTML) file or data transmitted by a Common Gateway Interface (CGI) from a server. Even though the hyperlink is not defined in advance, a browser may automatically set a hyperlink by searching a text. For example, when a text includes a telephone number 090-1234-5678, the browser detects the telephone number to set a hyperlink such as <a href=“tel:090-1234-5678”>090-1234-5678</a>. When the hyperlink displayed on a screen of the browser is clicked, an installed Telephone software program is activated, and a telephone call program window in which the telephone number is input is opened. When the text includes a mail address xxx@foo.bar, the browser detects the mail address, a hyperlink such as <a href=“mailto:xxx@foo.bar”>xxx@foo.bar</a> is set to the mail address. When the hyperlink displayed on the screen of the browser is clicked, the installed e-mail program is activated, and a mail creating window on which the mail address is displayed as a destination is opened. In this manner, data designated by an anchor href can be given from the browser to another application.
In addition to the above technique, as a technique which gives information between applications, the following technique is known. Patent Document 1 discloses a technique which analyzes an HTML document browsed by a browser to extract information such as an address or a telephone number and embeds an object button which activates an application corresponding to an extracted character string in the HTML document. Patent Document 2 discloses a technique which extracts information such as a telephone number or a mail address by analyzing an HTML document and, when a cursor is pointed to the extracted information, automatically displays a menu which activates an application corresponding to the information. In any one of the techniques, when the application is activated, the extracted information is output to the application.
[Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Application (Laid Open) No. 2003-122771
[Patent Document 2] Japanese Patent Application (Laid Open) No. 2000-330681